Crafty Vision

Just got back from South Carolina. The most eligible bachelor in my immediate family (okay, he was the only eligible bachelor left in my immediate family) is now officially "off the market." The wedding went well, and the couple is honeymooning on the beach right now. I love weddings. More on that some other time...

For now, I was just reading in Genesis 11, doing some preparation for a series I'll be teaching this October, and noticed something interesting. You remember the Tower of Babel story, which comes sometime after Noah's ark landed. In Genesis 11:4, the people of the earth say, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."

The idea of crafting a vision to unify an organization is as old as Noah's ark.

But you'll also remember that the people of Babel ended up in big trouble for their vision. The key word in the passage is "ourselves." Read the verse again: "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."

These people were the direct descendants of Noah. They had his testimony, and would have undoubtedly heard of God's declarations about Noah and his descendants. They had an identity - a vision. The problem was, they wanted their own.

As a part of organizations, especially churches, we need to be abolutely sure that we're not in the business of crafting vision for our organization. We shouldn't be able creating a brand/identity for our organization. As leaders of Christian organizations, we must never be in the business of creating vision, but we must always be in the business of casting the vision which has already been established. Otherwise, we run the risk of creating vision and identity that is in direct contradiction to God's desire for us, which is exactly what the people of Babel did. And, just as in the case of the people of Babel, our vision for ourselves will always be shortsighted.

The rationale behind the decision of those in Babel to create their own vision, city, and name, was to prevent being "scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth." They wanted a city and name for themselves so badly that they allowed a felt-need to eclipse their greater purpose. In reality, dispersement over the whole earth was a blessing promised to Noah and his sons by God in 9:1.

Their dream was short-sighted, selfish, and either knowingly or unknowingly left God out. And as a result, God fulfilled his blessing to Noah's descendants by judging them.

I worry sometimes that a lot of our Christian organizations set out to craft vision in response to felt needs without ever stopping to consider how that vision might hinder the vision each Christian organization should presuppose.